Massanutten Ridge East Side, Virginia

I decided that I wanted to get some distance so came up with a plan. I drove to the 'Tuscarora meets the Massanuttens' trailhead off of Route 613 and spent Saturday night there. Then I woke up at the crack of dawn and hit the mountain. The Massanutten trail is nice because it is about 71 miles in length, which means that you can go as far as you want as long as you are doing an up and back. You get some lovely views of both the Shenandoah Mountains and the squigly Shenandoah River. This was the first pic of the day taken at Tuscarora/Massanutten intersection of the Shenandoah Valley.

The Massanutten Trail can be difficult and I will explain why. The Massanuttens are two ridges that are parallel to the west side of the Shenandoah Mountains. But they are different than the Shenadoah. Imagine if someone folded a graham cracker up like an accordian. The trail lies directly on top of the jagged ridge caused by the folding. Needless to say, at times this is not a smooth mountain path. Jagged rocks impaling the trail surface abound. You can't see the steepness unless you are at the top of the ridge looking down. This means that one cannot make record time on this trail. I gained a new found respect for those who participate in the The Massanutten 100 Mile Race. There are good reasons why those finishers have blood all over themselves. I can't imagine somebody being able to perform 100 miles of this misery in just 17 hours and 40 minutes, I am amazed at the success of the participants.

Everyone in Baltimore was running a marathon this weekend, I figured I'd do a marathon too, but I'd do mine on the moutain. I spent every daylight minute that I could muster going from Veech Gap all the way to Stephens Trail intersection. I had to wave the white flag of defeat 1 mile away from Kennedy Peak as my turn around/lunch time time was 12:30PM. This gave me 28 miles and probably 4000 feet of elevation change.

Here is my video offering of the day, I do some sexy clothing modeling for you.